Australia regulator chief Rod Sims says Google and Facebook draft laws fair, critical for media future

SYDNEY: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman (ACCC) Rod Sims said proposed laws that will make Australia the first country in the world to force Google and Facebook to pay for news were fair and critical for the survival of the media industry.

Sims said he was surprised to hear criticisms from Google about the draft legislation unveiled by the Australian government earlier this month.

Google last week declared the code unworkable, citing in particular a requirement to provide publishers with two weeks’ notice of certain changes to algorithms and internal practice.

“We thought they were comfortable with that … so we were very surprised that they’re still complaining about that,” Sims said in an interview on Monday for Reuters Next https://reutersevents.com/events/next.